Judge dismisses ethics case against MQS

Michael Quinn Sullivan, president and CEO of Empower Texans and Texans for Fiscal Responsibility. Photo courtesy of Texas Tribune.

DENTON — A state district judge Wednesday dismissed a ruling from the Texas Ethics Commission that found conservative powerbroker Michael Quinn Sullivan violated state law by failing to register as a lobbyist in 2010 and 2011.

In a four-hour hearing, judge Steve Burgess ruled that a state law put in place to protect free speech and the right to assemble applied to Sullivan.

“It is significant that on the very first day that a court had the opportunity to look at this situation .. the judge dismissed it,” Sullivan said outside the courthouse. “That’s indicative of where this case was all along. The Texas Ethics Commission has devolved into an agency in which the process is the punishment.”

The commission and Sullivan have been sparring over the lobby registration issue since 2012, when state officials launched a probe after sworn complaints by state Rep. Jim Keffer, R-Eastland, and former state Rep. Vicki Truitt, R-Keller, accused Sullivan of directly lobbying members of the Texas House in the last quarter of 2010 and during the 2011 session and failing to register with the state.

Sullivan was fined $10,000 by the commission in late July after he was have flouted state law for failing to register. Sullivan appealed in August, claiming Denton as his county of residence and opting to have the case heard.

Eric Nichols, a lawyer hired by the ethics commission, said he expects to appeal.